Nope, this is not about the Italian luxury brand, which is listed in the Milan Stock Exchange that is known for superb quality shoes, bags, accessories and other leather goods.

TODs stands for Transit Oriented Development/s, described to be the optimum design strategy of urban planning. It’s the way to go in urban development – compact, mixed-use, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, and closely integrated with mass transit by clustering jobs, housing, services, and amenities around public transport stations.

Now, here’s the thing: heard from the business community that Sumitomo Corporation is keen on investing in the construction of a TOD somewhere north of the metropolis.

This is one concrete result of the recent state visit of President Marcos in Japan early last month. Sumitomo is among the 35 Japanese corporations that signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for various business activities, both in the Philippines and in Japan. For its railway business, Sumitomo is focused on the region with the Philippines as its “most important market,” having been in the country for over a quarter of a century. The Japanese firm was involved in the construction of LRT Line, Line 2 and MRT Line 3, which it operates.

Transportation Secretary Jaime “Jimmy” B. Bautista affirmed this good news. Without going into details as things are just starting up, Mr. Jimmy says such could be “part of the initiative” to upscale the country’s railway systems on Sumitomo’s renewed commitment stipulated in the LOI.

This early, though, Mr. Jimmy is looking forward to its fruition as TOD may include in its design an integrated terminal exchange patterned after PITX operated jointly by Megawide Construction Corporation and DOTr through the public-private partnership program.

Despite the initial apprehension when it opened in November 2018, commuters are now patronizing PITX because of its connectivity to intercity and provincial buses, jeepneys and UV express.

From what I’ve gathered, TODs have many benefits, especially for commuters – easy access to transit, city services as well as increasing transit ridership across the metropolis.

It’s no wonder that many cities like San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver are going into TOD. Though, this was the way in Japan as early as 1980s and in the 1990s, the Japanese government decided to make Tokyo more internationally competitive, with TOD as its ammunition that connects central Tokyo and surrounding suburban cities.

This TOD could be like Shinagawa terminal station in Tokyo, tagged to be one of the successful integrated urban developments. It is the transfer point of Tokaido Shinkansen going to Nagoya, Kyoto, and Shin-Osaka, as well as Keihin Kyuko (Haneda airport), Narita Express (Narita airport).

Like Mr. Jimmy, I, too, am excited about TOD, believed to be the best solution to transportation for the growing population and could possibly reduce the number of vehicles traversing the main thoroughfare that is EDSA. In a way, it could be considered an environmental project since it reduces reliance on automobiles that in turn lessens carbon emission.

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